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The ministers met to discuss draft 2015 budgets of euro zone countries, with Paris and Rome in focus because the drafts for both are at risk of breaking European Union rules. France is also facing criticism for badly missing its 2014 targets.
The European Commission, the guardian of EU laws, has delayed judgement on the French and Italian plans until early March. But if still found wanting on consolidation then, France could be fined and Italy put under a disciplinary procedure.
Under rules set out in the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, countries must cut their structural deficits, stripping out the effect of the business cycle and one-off items, by 0.5 percent of GDP every year until budgets are balanced or in surplus.
Italy, in recession and with a huge and rising public debt, has said it will cut its structural deficit by just 0.1 percent next year. But ministers said the debt must be tackled even if it was a big challenge given low inflation and falling output.
"Effective measures would be needed to allow for an improvement of the structural effort," they said.